Arch Linux Desktop Setup Scripts and Configs

This repo contains all of my personal Arch Linux configs for i3, polybar, etc. Running the install script in the root of the repo should install all components (requires user input during installation of various components).

Install Script Usage

Running the install script in the root of this repository will install all packages and configs. If those packages and configs are already installed, they will be reinstalled. If you want to just do an update, run ./install.sh update.

By default, the custom rust programs will keep their build files after installation so that updates don't require a complete rebuild. You can disable this by running ./install.sh clean-tools or ./install.sh update clean-tools.

General Arch Installation Guide

This section contains steps to install Arch in general (prior to running these install scripts). These steps were generally created from https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/installation_guide with some changes based on personal experience.

• Ensure network connection works by pinging some ip/domain.
• Enable system clock synchronization with timedatectl set-ntp true.
• Run lsblk or fdisk -l to see available disks, then run parted to start partitioning. You can use the select parted command to select a disk.
  • Create a partition table with mklabel gpt.
  • If using legacy BIOS, create a BIOS partition like so: mkpart bios 0% 4MiB and set 1 bios_grub on
  • If using UEFI, create a EFI partition like so: mkpart efi 0% 512MiB (you can go smaller if needed) and set 1 boot on and set 1 esp on.
  • Create swap partition (optional but recommended) with mkpart swap 4MiB 4MiB+SIZE on BIOS and mkpart swap 512MiB 512MiB+SIZE on UEFI. Mark as swap: set 2 swap on. Replace size with the desired size of the swap partition (see: https://itsfoss.com/swap-size/) and do the actual addition calculation by hand (don't actually type +).
  • Create the main partition with mkpart primary 4MiB+SIZE 100% or mkpart primary 512MiB+SIZE 100%.
  • You're done with parted, go ahead and quit.
  • Go ahead and run lsblk to see partitions again for the next steps.
  • Format the EFI parition with mkfs.fat -F 32 /dev/partition (no need to format the BIOS partition).
  • Format the swap partition with mkswap /dev/partition.
  • Format the main partition with mkfs.ext4 /dev/partition.
  • Mount the main partition with mount /dev/partition /mnt.
  • Enable the swap partition with swapon /dev/partition.
  • Run pacstrap: pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware.
  • Generate the fstab file: genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab. Should probably also check to make sure it generated correctly.
  • Time to chroot: arch-chroot /mnt.
  • Set time zone: ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/New_York /etc/localtime (or whatever time zone you want).
  • Generate adjtime: hwclock --systohc.
  • Install nano with pacman -S nano and uncomment en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 from /etc/locale.gen (tip: use ctrl+w in nano to search for something). Then generate locale: locale-gen.
  • Create locale config: echo 'LANG=en_US.UTF-8' > /etc/locale.conf.
  • Create hostname: echo 'myhostname' > /etc/hostname (whatever hostname you want) and write

    127.0.0.1	localhost
    ::1		localhost
    127.0.1.1	myhostname.localdomain	myhostname
    

    into /etc/hosts.
  • Set the root password with passwd.
  • Install and enable dhcpcd so that wired network connections work (more may be needed for wifi, so just used wired for first install): pacman -S dhcpcd and systemctl enable dhcpcd.
  • Enable sudo user group: EDITOR=nano visudo and uncomment the line enabling wheel as a user group for sudo.
  • Create your user: useradd -m user and set its password: passwd user. Add it to the sudo group: gpasswd -a user wheel.
  • Install grub: pacman -S grub. Also install efibootmgr if using UEFI.
    • For BIOS: grub-install --target=i386-pc /dev/drive (the drive, not the partition)
    • For UEFI: First mount the EFI partition to /efi: mkdir /efi and mount /dev/partition /efi, then grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/efi --bootloader-id=GRUB.
    • Generate grub config: grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
  • Now, reboot, log in with your user, ensure sudo and other components work, clone this repo, and run the install script.